"Ciel! the light becomes him," said Louison, her grand eyes aglow.
But before there was time to answer I had kissed her also.
"He is a bold thing," she added, turning soberly to the baroness.
"Both a bold and happy thing," I answered. "Forgive me. I should
not be so bold if I were not--well--insanely happy."
"He is only a boy," said the baroness, laughing as she kissed me.
"Poor little ingenu!" said Louison, patting my arm.
Louise, tall and lovely and sedate as ever, stood near me, primping
her bonnet.
"Little ingenu!" she repeated, with a faint laugh of irony as she
placed the dainty thing on her head.
"Well, what do _you_ think of him?" said Louison, turning to help
her.
"Dieu! that he is very big and dreadful," said the other, soberly.
"I should think we had better be going."
These things move slowly on paper, but the greeting was to me
painfully short, there being of it not more than a minuteful, I
should say. On our way to the lights they plied me with whispered
queries, and were in fear of more fighting. The prisoners were now
in the coach, and our men--there were twelve--stood on every side
of it, their pikes in hand. The boats were near, and we hurried to
the river by a toteway. Our schooner lay some twenty rods off a
point. A bateau and six canoes were waiting on the beach, and when
we had come to the schooner I unbound the prisoners.
"You can get ashore with this bateau," I said. "You will find the
horses tied to a tree."
"Wha' does thet mean?" said D'ri.
"That we have no right to hold them," was my answer. "Ronley was,
in no way responsible for their coming."
Leaning over the side with a lantern, while one of our men held the
bateau, I motioned to the coachman.
"Give that 'humberreller' to the butler, with my compliments," I
whispered.
Our anchors up, our sails took the wind in a jiffy.
"Member how we used ye," D'ri called to the receding Britishers,
"an' ef ye ever meet a Yankee try t' be p'lite tew 'im."
Dawn had come before we got off at the Harbor dock. I took the
ladies to an inn for breakfast, wrote a report, and went for my
horse and uniform. General Brown was buttoning his suspenders when
they admitted me to his room.
"What luck, my boy?" said he.
"All have returned safely, including the ladies," I replied
quickly, "and I have the honor to submit a report."
He took a chair, and read the report carefully, and looked up at
me, laughing.
"What a lucky and remarkable young man!" said he. "I declare, you
should have lived in the Middle Ages."
"Ah, then I should not have enjoyed your compliments or your
friendship," was my answer.
He laughed again heartily.
"Nor the demoiselles'," said he. "I congratulate you. They are
the loveliest of their sex; but I'm sorry they're not Americans."
"Time enough. I have decided that one of them shall become an
American," said I, with all the confidence of youth.
"It is quite an undertaking," said he. "You may find new
difficulties. Their father is at the chateau."
"M'sieur de Lambert?" I exclaimed.
"M'sieur de Lambert. Came yesterday, via Montreal, with a fine
young nobleman--the Count Esmon de Brovel," said he. "You must
look out for him; he has the beauty of Apollo and the sword of a
cavalier."
"And I no fear of him," I answered soberly, with a quick sense of
alarm.
"They rode over in the afternoon with Chaumont," he went on. "It
seems the young ladies' father, getting no news of them, had become
worried. Well, you may go and have three days for your fun; I
shall need you presently."
Breakfast over, I got a team for the ladies, and, mounting my own
horse, rode before them. I began to consider a very odd thing in
this love experience. While they were in captivity I had begun to
think less of Louison and more of Louise. In truth, one face had
faded a little in my memory; the other, somehow, had grown clearer
and sweeter, as if by a light borrowed from the soul behind it.
Now that I saw Louison, her splendid face and figure appealed to me
with all the power of old. She was quick, vivacious, subtle,
aggressive, cunning, aware and proud of her charms, and ever making
the most of them. She, ah, yes, she could play with a man for the
mere pleasure of victory, and be very heartless if--if she were not
in love with him. This type of woman had no need of argument to
make me feel her charms. With her the old doubt had returned to
me; for how long? I wondered. Her sister was quite her
antithesis--thoughtful, slow, serious, even-tempered, frank, quiet,
unconscious of her beauty, and with that wonderful thing, a voice
tender and low and sympathetic and full of an eloquence I could
never understand, although I felt it to my finger-tips. I could
not help loving her, and, indeed, what man with any life in him
feels not the power of such a woman? That morning, on the
woods-pike, I reduced the problem to its simplest terms: the one
was a physical type, the other a spiritual.
"M'sieur le Capitaine," said Louison, as I rode by the carriage,
"what became of the tall woman last night?"
"Left us there in the woods," I answered. "She was afraid of you."
"Afraid of me! Why?"
"Well, I understand that you boxed her ears shamefully."
A merry peal of laughter greeted my words.
"It was too bad; you were very harsh," said Louise, soberly.
"I could not help it; she was an ugly, awkward thing," said
Louison. "I could have pulled her nose'"
"And it seems you called her a geante also," I said. "She was
quite offended."
"It was a compliment," said the girl. "She was an Amazon--like the
count's statue of Jeanne d'Arc."
"Poor thing! she could not help it," said Louise.
"Well," said Louison, with a sigh of regret, "if I ever see her
again I shall give her a five-franc piece."
There was a moment of silence, and she broke it.
"I hope, this afternoon, you will let me ride that horse," said she.
"On one condition," was my reply.
"And it is--?"
"That you will let me ride yours at the same time."
"Agreed," was her answer. "Shall we go at three?"
"With the consent of the baroness and--and your father," I said.
"Father!" exclaimed the two girls. /
"Your father," I repeated. "He is now at the chateau."
"Heavens!" said Louison.
"What will he say?" said the baroness.
"I am so glad--my dear papa!" said Louise, clapping her hands.
We were out of the woods now, and could see the chateau in the
uplands.